Greenberg: Apple Stops Playing Games

Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer did something remarkable on the company's earnings call Wednesday: He said (in not so many words) that the company would stop lowballing earnings estimates.

Speaking to investors on the earnings call, he said:

"In recent years, our guidance reflected a conservative point estimate or results every quarter that we had reasonable confidence in achieving. Going forward, we plan to provide a range of guidance that reflects our belief of what we are likely to achieve. While we cannot forecast with complete accuracy, we believe we are likely to report within the range of guidance we provide."

Or put another way, the company seems to be saying it won't sandbag anymore.

Not that it ever came right out and said it was. It didn't.

But lowballing by Apple was widely accepted by investors as matter-of-fact. A few years ago, after Apple's stock rose in the face of what appeared to be weak guidance, I raised the issue in a column headlined, "Does Apple Always Lowball?"The reaction was pretty much -- "So? They alway do."